What are you, a wise guy?

November 29, 2005

SOUTH BEND -- How many kids do you know who scored a perfect 36 on the ACT test, then had one of their teachers admit it really wasn't a surprise? Then again how many know anyone who achieved perfection on a college entrance exam? Rob Jones, of South Bend, a senior at St. Joseph's High School, recently found out he received the maximum overall score -- a 36 -- on the ACT he took in September. But Julie Chismar, his economics teacher, upon reflection, said she's not totally surprised. "He is an exceptional student," she said. "He not only scored a perfect score on the ACT, he's a national merit semifinalist." And he scored a 1550 out of 1600 on the old Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and is ranked at the top of his class. "It was not a surprise, I suppose," Chismar said, "but it's an extraordinary accomplishment." So extraordinary, in fact, the school received a letter from American College Testing Program CEO Richard Ferguson explaining that Jones is one of only 11 students nationwide to have accomplished the feat on the September test and one of two in Indiana. About 70,000 students took the test that day. For Jones, an affable senior who plays on the golf team and is a member of the pingpong club, the Quiz Bowl team and the South Bend Youth Symphony, among other activities, it's an honor. "I was pretty excited about it," he said. "It's not every day that you get a perfect score on a standardized test like that. "It's like wow, I got a perfect score. It's exciting." Jones, son of Bob and Lucy Jones of South Bend, notes that he really didn't achieve perfection, even if he did have a perfect score. "I didn't get every question right," he said. "But it means you got enough questions right to fall into the range of 36." It's similar to the SAT II, he said. "There's like a certain number you have to get right," he said. "It's kind of curved." With a test score of 36 and a grade-point average of 4.569 on a 4-point scale, academic scholarship offers likely are coming his way for college. Right now, Notre Dame, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT and Northwestern are schools he is considering. Engineering is a possible future field because of his science and math academic interests. But so is economics. Wherever he ends up, Jones has no complaints with ending up at St. Joseph's to start his freshman year after moving from the Chicago suburb of Oak Park when his father became director of Notre Dame's legal aid clinic. "It's a great school," he said of St. Joseph's. "I had no idea what it was coming here. I loved it. The vast majority of classes have been very good and I have learned a whole bunch every year I have been here. "The people are great. The teachers are great, and they always want to help you out and push you further. It's a great community." About the only disappointment with the score is that it came on the ACT in a community where the SAT reigns. "I lived in Chicago and everybody takes the ACT there," he said. "I was surprised how few people actually knew about the ACT." Still, he says he will take the perfect ACT over becoming a National Merit finalist (yet to be announced) if he had to. "Being a National Merit finalist sounds pretty cool," he said. "It would give me scholarship money, but it's just kind of a title."